Hinge



I HUGHES HINGE Filed Feb. 12, 1934 Patented Sept. 10, 1935 nnvoa James E. Hughes, South Bend, Ind., assignor to The Atwood Vacuum Machine Company, Rockford, 111., a copartnership composed of Seth B. Atwood and James T. Atwood Application February 12, 1934, Serial No. 710,799' 4 1 Claim. (01. 16-164) This invention relates to hinges for the doors of motor vehicles and has particular reference to a multiple pintle hinge of the concealed type.

The principal object of my invention is to pro- 5 vide a hinge of the kind referred to operatinggenerally on the principle of a lazy tongs and made of four links, or stacks of links, interconnected by pintles, seven to a hinge, the links being pivotally connected by the pintles so that the hinge is completely concealed and takes up minimum space when the door is closed, and the door is capable of sufficient movement bodily outwardly to afiord ample clearance with respect to the bulged outside of the car body in opening. Another object consists in the novel application of two hinges of the-kind described to a center pillar on an automobile body so that the two hinges interfit for compactness and rigidity and form a twelve-pintle double hinge to mount two doors on a single bracket.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a cross-section in a horizontal plane through the center pillar showing the bracket and the double hinge of my invention, the one door being shown closed and the other opened to illustrate the closed and opened posi tions of the hinges, and

Fig. 2 is a section in a vertical plane on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral I designates the bracket mounted on the center pillar I of an automobile body between the front and rear doors 2 and 3, respectively. Plates 4 and 5 are fastened to the edges of the doors 2 and 3 in the positions indicated and each receives two pintles, the pintles 6 and I being on plate 4 and pintles 8 and 9 on plate 5. The bracket l carries two pintles I0 and II. Now, the invention will be fully understood from a description of the single hinge for door 3, but it will, of course, be understood that my invention relates as much to a twelve-pintle double hinge, as to a sevenpintle single hinge, the two pintles l0 and 'l I being' common to the two hinges.

.In describing the hinge for door 3, reference will be made only .to those links appearing in the plan view, Figure 1, that is, only to one link of each of the four stacks, there being suflicient links of a kind in each stack to give the desired strength and rigidity to the hinge, althoughthe individual links are stamped from rather light sheet metal. Referring first to links l2 and I3, the link I2 interconnects pintle III with another pintle l4 and the link l3 interconnects pintle ll pivoted at one end in spaced relation on with two other pintles l5 and Hi. There are two other door supporting links I! and Ill. The link' I! interconnects pintle 8 with pintle l6, and the link l8 interconnects pintle 9 with the pintles l5 and M, the link l8 extending in criss-cross rela- 5 tion to link l3, with the pintle I5 common to both. The two crossed links are pivotally connected nearer those ends. that are pivotally connected with the shorter links. It is this ocation of the pivots, taken along with the arrangement 0 of the links, which accounts for the compacting or nesiing of the links into such a small space in closing as the hinge for door 2 illustrates in Figure 1. On the other hand, this arrangement also accounts for the extent to which the door will 15 move out bodily in opening, as the door 3 clearly illustrates in Figure. 1. It will be noticed that in the open position of the door, the hinge will limit further movement when the outer end of link ll strikes link I8. at l9. of the door bodily in opening is for the purpose of clearance with respect to the outside of the body, in the case of a single hinge, or with respect to the outside of the other door, in the case of a double hinge for two doors. The outward bulge of the outside of a body or door necessitates such outward movement where the hinge is concealed as herein disclosed and its axis or axes are behind the plane ofthe outside of the body or' door. The concealment of the hinge also 30 clearly appears in Figure -1 there being nothing visible at the vertical joint line 2| between the two doors when the doors are closed. The closed position of door 3 is indicated in dotted lines, to better illustrate the gap between the flanged 35 edges of the two doors at the joint line.

When two hinges of the kind just-described are mounted on a single bracket to form a double hinge, it is merely necessary to place the links l2 and I3 of the one hinge in between the corresponding links of the other hinge-and insert the pintles through registering holes as must be evident from Figures 1 and 2. In this way, there is avoided the necessity for using spacing washers, such as are indicated at 22 between the ends of the links fastened to the door plates.

I claim: v

In a double multiple pintle hinge, the combination with a support for two doors, of a plate adapted to be secured to each door, two hinges each of which comprises a set of short linksand a set of long links arranged to be pivoted at one end in spaced relation on said support, and another set of short links and another set of long. 55

The outward movement Q one of said plates. the sets of long links being criss-crossed and pivotally connected at the intersection, and the first set of short links being pivotally connected to the other end of the second set of long links and the second set of short links being pivotally connected to the other end of the first'set of long the first mentioned long links of the one hinge having their one ends spaced and fitting between the spaced ends of 10 the corresponding long links-o1 the other hinge,

and the first mentioned short links of the one hinge having their one ends spaced and fitting between the spaced ends of the corresponding short links of the other hinge, whereby the related sets 01' links serve as spacers for one another, and two pintles entered through registering holes provided in the interfitted ends of the links, whereby two pintles are common to the two sets or links of the two hinges.

JAMES R. HUGHES. 

